New Discoveries at Jamestown Part 6

Home Industries

During archeological explorations many artifacts relating to household and town industries were recovered. It is believed that many of these small industries were home activities carried on in the houses at Jamestown. A few of these activities, and the products of them are mentioned briefly.

SPINNING AND WEAVING

A few metal parts from spinning wheels and looms have been excavated--reminders that the pioneer housewife who spun the thread and yarn, and wove the cloth for her large family, was seldom idle.

MALTING AND BREWING

One Jamestown building or house (whose brick foundations were discovered in 1955) appears to have been used for malting and brewing beer and ale, or carrying out some activity requiring distillation. A few pieces of lead were found which may have been part of a lead cistern for holding barley. The three brick ovens that were uncovered may have been used as drying kilns. A handle from a copper kettle was found near one of the ovens, and pieces of copper and lead pipes were unearthed not far from the building. The structure itself appears to have been used between 1625 and 1660.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SPINNING THREAD OR YARN AND WEAVING CLOTH WERE ENDLESS Ch.o.r.eS FOR THE WOMEN LIVING IN THE SMALL WILDERNESS SETTLEMENT.

(Conjectural sketch by Sidney E. King.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: BREWING BEER AT JAMESTOWN. (Conjectural sketch by Sidney E. King.)]

DAIRYING AND CHEESEMAKING

Earthenware milk pans, bowls and pots, iron hoops (from wooden vessels), an earthenware funnel, and parts of skimmers, sieves, and ladles have been excavated. All these are evidence that dairying was an important household industry. This activity was usually carried on in a brick-paved room (with slatted windows) located on the northwest side of the house. Cheese, as well as b.u.t.ter, was probably made in the same room.

[Ill.u.s.tration: LEAD AND COPPER PIPES, KETTLE FRAGMENTS, A BRa.s.s SPIGOT, AND OTHER ITEMS FOUND WHICH MAY HAVE BEEN USED FOR BREWING OR DISTILLING PURPOSES.]

BAKING

One of the largest objects that has been found is an earthenware baking oven, which was unearthed in an old ditch near the site of the May-Hartwell House. Restored from over 200 fragments, the oven was probably used between 1650 and 1690. It may have been made at Jamestown, molded of native clay and fired in a pottery kiln. In use, heated stones were placed inside the oven and left until the walls were hot enough for baking. Sometimes, however, the oven may have been placed directly on the embers of the fire. It undoubtedly was used out of doors, near a small house.

a.s.sOCIATED INDUSTRIES

A few artifacts that have been recovered are a.s.sociated with millers, drapers, basketmakers, cutlers, tailors, barbers, netmakers, and glovers. These tradesmen usually worked in or near their homes.

[Ill.u.s.tration: EARTHENWARE MILK PAN, BRa.s.s LADLE, FUNNEL FRAGMENT, AND OTHER ITEMS FOUND WHICH RELATE TO DAIRYING AND CHEESEMAKING.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: BAKING BREAD IN AN OUTDOOR BAKING OVEN ABOUT 1650.

(Conjectural sketch by Sidney E. King.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: IN THIS OVEN A JAMESTOWN WOMAN BAKED BREAD OVER 300 YEARS AGO. IT APPEARS TO HAVE BEEN IN USE BETWEEN 1650 AND 1690.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: JAMESTOWN SOLDIERS CARRYING POLEARMS (A HALBERD AND A BILL). (Conjectural sketch by Sidney E. King.)]

Military Equipment

The vast a.s.semblage of military equipment that has been unearthed (probably the largest collection of late 16th-and 17th-century English weapons used in America) emphasizes the important part which firearms and other weapons played during the early years of the settlement. They helped the colonists to protect themselves from the ever-menacing Indian and from the Spaniards who might at anytime have sailed up the James River to attack the small colony. They were also the means of providing the settlers with much of their food.

During the early years of the colony each Englishman who planned to emigrate to Virginia was advised to supply himself with the following "Armes":

"One Armour compleat, light.

One long Peece, five foot or five and a halfe, neere Musket bore.

One sword.

One bandaleere [a bandoleer was a belt worn to carry the cases which held the powder charges].

Twenty pound of powder.

Sixty pound of shot or lead, Pistoll and Goose shot."

Most of the kinds of arms listed have been found at Jamestown and will be described briefly along with other types of weapons which were unearthed.

POLEARMS

Parts from several polearms, including bills, pikes, and a halberd, have been excavated. The recovered halberd (a polearm with sharp cutting edges and a spearlike point) is typical of the late 16th century, and may have been made as early as 1575. A few bills were unearthed, all dating around 1600. (A bill is a polearm, having a long staff terminating in a hook-shaped blade, usually with spikes at the back and top.) Two pike b.u.t.ts were also unearthed.

[Ill.u.s.tration: TWO EARLY 17TH-CENTURY POLEARMS--A BILL AND HALBERD--UNEARTHED AT JAMESTOWN. BOTH WEAPONS HAD LONG WOODEN HANDLES.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE CALTROP UNEARTHED AT JAMESTOWN. THIS SHARP-POINTED INSTRUMENT WAS THROWN ON THE GROUND TO IMPEDE AN ENEMY'S INFANTRY AND CAVALRY.]

CALTROP

This small item unearthed at Jamestown is an instrument with 4 iron points, so arranged that no matter how it lands, 1 point always projects upward, to impede the progress of an enemy's cavalry and to prevent surprise attacks.

SWORDS, RAPIERS, AND CUTLa.s.sES

Types of swords that have been found include broadswords, cutla.s.ses or back swords, and rapiers. Three examples are complete, or nearly so--a cutla.s.s, a broadsword, and a swept-hilt rapier. Many basket hilts were unearthed together with guards from other type swords, pommels, and blade fragments. A number of these edged weapons were made between 1600 and 1625. Several basket-hilted guards and blade fragments were found at the site of an early 17th-century forge, which may have been an armorer's workshop.

CANNON

One small cannon barrel fragment, possibly from a light cannon known as a robinet, has been unearthed (the bore at the end of the barrel is only 1-1/4 inches across). A varied a.s.sortment of 17th-century cannon b.a.l.l.s have also been found, appropriate sizes for such ordnance as demiculverines, sakers, minions, and falcons.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIRING A DEMICULVERINE FROM A BASTION AT "JAMES FORT."

(Conjectural sketch by Sidney E. King.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: HILT AND PORTION OF BLADE OF A SWEPT-HILT RAPIER EXCAVATED AT JAMESTOWN OF THE 1600-1610 PERIOD.]

MUSKETS

An excellent a.s.semblage of 17th-century musket barrels and gun parts have been recovered from the Jamestown soil, reminiscent of times when Indians attempted to wipe out the small settlement.

Among the gunlocks found are matchlocks, wheel-locks, snaphaunces, "doglocks," and flintlocks. The first settlers were equipped with both wheel-lock and matchlock muskets. Some of the muskets were so heavy, they required a forked ground-rest to shoot (parts of two forked ground-rests have been excavated). Other muskets, like the caliver, were light, and could be fired without the use of a support.

The standard musket during the early years of the settlement was the matchlock. By 1625, however, the picture had changed, for the wheel-lock, snaphaunce, and "doglock," were being used in large numbers, and the matchlock had become obsolete.